Music Trade Review
Issue: 1926 Vol. 83 N. 19-SECTION-2 - Page 3
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Musical Merchandise
Published by The Music Trade Review, 383 Madison Avenue, New York
What About Winter Business?
HIS should be the best season of the year. It usually is.
It is going to be this year. We know that. We've had a
rocky Summer in certain respects but trade all along the line
has brightened up definitely during the past six weeks and job-
bers and manufacturers are unanimous in the report that about 80
per cent of their dealer accounts are as active as they ought to be
now.
Let us grant then that business conditions in the musical mer-
chandise trade are right for a good holiday and Winter season. If
you are a dealer who is not doing business, you can take it from
this that your brother dealers are and there must be something
wrong with your methods, local conditions, of course, excepted.
What are the conditions and prospects in the various divisions
of the trade ? What items are selling ? That's what dealers want to
know.
Violins, first, just to get started on something. Trade reports
show that there has been a gratifying revival in this staple item.
Everybody knows that violin sales last spring had fallen off way
below normal. On all sides you heard the question: "What's the
matter with violins ? Why is no one buying violins ?" We had just
about decided to use this space in this issue for a discussion of what
was wrong with violins, when suddenly—nothing is wrong with
violins.
Violins had just become too well established and possibly
youngsters had been devoting too much time to the cheap ukulele
and the easy-to-play instruments. A wave of enthusiasm for
serious music has again engulfed the youth of the land and the
pendulurn of violin demand has swung back so that it is believed
to be above normal.
While all grades of violins are selling the revival has come par-
ticularly in the medium-grade good quality instrument. Full, three-
quarter and half-size fiddles are all in good demand and with the
revival has naturally come an increased demand for cases, bows,
strings and accessories.
As the stocks of jobbers and importers are being steadily tap-
ped an actual shortage of violins is not impossible during the next
two months, and as a result an increase in prices. This has led
many reliable jobbers who never resort to fictitious price rise fore-
casts to advise their customers to buy violins now against a pos-
sible price advance before the new year.
Mail order houses and large dealers report a slight falling off
in the demand for tenor banjos. This is not unexpected, for this
popular instrument had an exceptional vogue for some time which
invited some degree of overproduction. The better quality instru-
ments have not felt this falling off, we have it from leading manu-
facturers. This is an inevitable result of the trend toward better
quality instruments.
It is no secret that there has been an overproduction of cheap
ukuleles and a good bit of price slashing both in the retail and
wholesale market that has unsteadied this market. It is felt, how-
ever, that a good bit of this slump is seasonal and the ukulele trade
T
will emerge later in the Winter in a healthier state. A number of
the manufacturers are in the market with better quality merchan-
dise and many improved features and these are helping the demand.
The ukulele has weathered many an up and down and the wiser
merchants can now fairly and accurately chart the movements of
the market. The wiser ones look for another good uke Spring and
Summer.
The business in reeds for clarinets and saxophones has grown
to sizable proportions. There are a number of popular reeds on
the market now that are big sellers" and the increased advertising of
reed distributors will make this a profitable item for dealers this
season. One New York jobber reports that his shipment of one
make of reeds to dealers in the month of September alone ran to
a retail value of $12,000.
Some dealer who has a few spare moments on his hands may
find it interesting to take a piece of paper and a pencil and calcu-
late the number of saxophone players using one or two reeds a
week at 50 cents per. What bright little pupil will tell us whether
reed business is worth going for ?
Woodwind instruments are selling well. Good quality clarinets,
both foreign and domestic manufacture, are enjoying remarkably
good demand. Dealers report that the bulk of this business is going
to the new bands and orchestras being formed in the schools.
The drum department is another from which there has been
no complaint. Drum outfits promise to sell very well during the
holidays and the professional trade right now is nourishing. Traps
and novelties are moving well and a number of unusual features
have been introduced to the trade with good results.
Probably the fastest-moving item among fretted instruments at
the present time is the guitar, if reports from the manufacturers can
be interpreted accurately. Manufacturers of high-grade as well as
medium and low-price instruments announce that for over a month
they have been constantly behind in filling orders. To the radio
is attributed a measure of the sudden popularity of the guitar, many
stations featuring this instrument nightly in their programs. What-
ever the reason, dealers report difficulty in keeping sufficient stocks
of guitars on hand.
:
We also hear that there is an appreciable revival of interesj:
in accordions, especially piano-key accordions. These instruments
retail at over $300, so naturally the smaller dealers are not inclined
to carry heavy stocks, but they are selling and the profit in them
is making them popular with dealers. A good many dealers are
beginning to realize that the piano-key accordion is not as formid-
able an instrument as it looks. It has become a regular feature of
most of the big dance orchestras.
Harder selling efforts on the part of the dealers during the next
few weeks should result in good holiday business. There are only
forty selling days to Christmas, so to-day must be the day to start.'
Spruce up your store displays and put your windows to work.
Start your advertising now and make your sales force work. The
business is there and can be landed.
Musical Merchandise
Published by The Music Trade Review, 383 Madison Avenue, New York
What About Winter Business?
HIS should be the best season of the year. It usually is.
It is going to be this year. We know that. We've had a
rocky Summer in certain respects but trade all along the line
has brightened up definitely during the past six weeks and job-
bers and manufacturers are unanimous in the report that about 80
per cent of their dealer accounts are as active as they ought to be
now.
Let us grant then that business conditions in the musical mer-
chandise trade are right for a good holiday and Winter season. If
you are a dealer who is not doing business, you can take it from
this that your brother dealers are and there must be something
wrong with your methods, local conditions, of course, excepted.
What are the conditions and prospects in the various divisions
of the trade ? What items are selling ? That's what dealers want to
know.
Violins, first, just to get started on something. Trade reports
show that there has been a gratifying revival in this staple item.
Everybody knows that violin sales last spring had fallen off way
below normal. On all sides you heard the question: "What's the
matter with violins ? Why is no one buying violins ?" We had just
about decided to use this space in this issue for a discussion of what
was wrong with violins, when suddenly—nothing is wrong with
violins.
Violins had just become too well established and possibly
youngsters had been devoting too much time to the cheap ukulele
and the easy-to-play instruments. A wave of enthusiasm for
serious music has again engulfed the youth of the land and the
pendulurn of violin demand has swung back so that it is believed
to be above normal.
While all grades of violins are selling the revival has come par-
ticularly in the medium-grade good quality instrument. Full, three-
quarter and half-size fiddles are all in good demand and with the
revival has naturally come an increased demand for cases, bows,
strings and accessories.
As the stocks of jobbers and importers are being steadily tap-
ped an actual shortage of violins is not impossible during the next
two months, and as a result an increase in prices. This has led
many reliable jobbers who never resort to fictitious price rise fore-
casts to advise their customers to buy violins now against a pos-
sible price advance before the new year.
Mail order houses and large dealers report a slight falling off
in the demand for tenor banjos. This is not unexpected, for this
popular instrument had an exceptional vogue for some time which
invited some degree of overproduction. The better quality instru-
ments have not felt this falling off, we have it from leading manu-
facturers. This is an inevitable result of the trend toward better
quality instruments.
It is no secret that there has been an overproduction of cheap
ukuleles and a good bit of price slashing both in the retail and
wholesale market that has unsteadied this market. It is felt, how-
ever, that a good bit of this slump is seasonal and the ukulele trade
T
will emerge later in the Winter in a healthier state. A number of
the manufacturers are in the market with better quality merchan-
dise and many improved features and these are helping the demand.
The ukulele has weathered many an up and down and the wiser
merchants can now fairly and accurately chart the movements of
the market. The wiser ones look for another good uke Spring and
Summer.
The business in reeds for clarinets and saxophones has grown
to sizable proportions. There are a number of popular reeds on
the market now that are big sellers" and the increased advertising of
reed distributors will make this a profitable item for dealers this
season. One New York jobber reports that his shipment of one
make of reeds to dealers in the month of September alone ran to
a retail value of $12,000.
Some dealer who has a few spare moments on his hands may
find it interesting to take a piece of paper and a pencil and calcu-
late the number of saxophone players using one or two reeds a
week at 50 cents per. What bright little pupil will tell us whether
reed business is worth going for ?
Woodwind instruments are selling well. Good quality clarinets,
both foreign and domestic manufacture, are enjoying remarkably
good demand. Dealers report that the bulk of this business is going
to the new bands and orchestras being formed in the schools.
The drum department is another from which there has been
no complaint. Drum outfits promise to sell very well during the
holidays and the professional trade right now is nourishing. Traps
and novelties are moving well and a number of unusual features
have been introduced to the trade with good results.
Probably the fastest-moving item among fretted instruments at
the present time is the guitar, if reports from the manufacturers can
be interpreted accurately. Manufacturers of high-grade as well as
medium and low-price instruments announce that for over a month
they have been constantly behind in filling orders. To the radio
is attributed a measure of the sudden popularity of the guitar, many
stations featuring this instrument nightly in their programs. What-
ever the reason, dealers report difficulty in keeping sufficient stocks
of guitars on hand.
:
We also hear that there is an appreciable revival of interesj:
in accordions, especially piano-key accordions. These instruments
retail at over $300, so naturally the smaller dealers are not inclined
to carry heavy stocks, but they are selling and the profit in them
is making them popular with dealers. A good many dealers are
beginning to realize that the piano-key accordion is not as formid-
able an instrument as it looks. It has become a regular feature of
most of the big dance orchestras.
Harder selling efforts on the part of the dealers during the next
few weeks should result in good holiday business. There are only
forty selling days to Christmas, so to-day must be the day to start.'
Spruce up your store displays and put your windows to work.
Start your advertising now and make your sales force work. The
business is there and can be landed.
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).